All pupils in Swedish schools are judged on their knowledge on basis of policy documents. There is on the other hand not much research on assessment of knowledge on pupils in elementary and secondary school with special needs. Swedish curriculums say that formative assessment should be used actively to shape the education. In this essay we aim to shine a light on how some pedagogues work with formative assessment. The essay is aimed at pupils with severe disabilities, both mental and physical, in the training school elementary for special needs and individual programs at secondary school for special needs.
The goal is to contribute with knowledge of formative assessment in elementary training school for special needs and individual programs at secondary school for special needs. The essay describes, interprets and understands some pedagogues’ opinion on possibilities and obstacles when it comes to formative assessment of the pupils in question. The questions asked in the essay are on the following subjects:
• Resources and tools at individual’s own level,
• Clarification of assessment on group level,
• Delegation of responsibility at organization level.
Our theoretical borders originate from the sociocultural perspective, where the entire system of education is in focus. Dysthe (2003) states that all parts in the school system contributes and cooperates with each other. All parts includes every student, staff member, and the schools’ organization.
Through half structured interviews, that took place in the pedagogues’ own workspace, data has been collected. The interviews have been transcribed and interpreted with a hermeneutic and qualitative aim.
From the results from the schools represented in the essay we could see that several different combinations of assessment tools are used. Photo and sometimes film were used to make the formative assessment concrete. Some schools had created different templates of assessment, those were used only at the schools where they had been shaped. None of the schools had a digital and central working system of assessing.